Opening Prayer for Burke CROP Walk
Sun, November 20, 2011
Thank you for joining CROP walkers all over America, and for raising precious funds to help the most vulnerable and bring dignity to places of the world you will never see, but will be touched with your kindness and advocacy. We thank God for you and for your sponsors.
God of life, Creator of the Universe, you have given us this amazing planet with enough food, water, and medicine for every man, woman, and child. But, we have yet to learn how to care and share, so that all can have these basic human necessities of life.
The book of Micah asks the question, “What does the Lord require of you?” The answer given is “to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.”
We walk with God today.
We walk with God today, because we hunger for justice, and we thirst for the eradication of poverty.
We walk with God today, because there are women and girls in Africa and Asia who have to walk 4-5 hours, for an average of 3.6 miles, to collect water that is not always fit for drinking.
We walk with God today, for the child who dies every 5 seconds from a hunger-related cause, and for the over one billion people who will be hungry tonight.
We walk with God today, because we are a community of faith, standing in the shoes of the poor, the hungry, the thirsty, and the neglected of the world, hearing their cries for daily bread, fresh water, and adequate health care.
We walk with God today, because we are the foot soldiers of justice, and the messengers of divine good in a world that neglects the most vulnerable and is blind to the plight and pain of poverty.
With humility, we walk together today, because we believe in justice, mercy, and we know that we cannot stand idly by while our neighbors and fellow humans suffer. We stand with them and we walk for them.
May you be blessed as you go on your way,
May you be guided in peace,
May faith and compassion find their way to every soul,
May this be our blessing. Amen.